Beer is Watery!

[Stark]

On Contrary to what those trying my First 2 brews have noted, I have found myself after a few bottles not totally pleased with how 'Watery' my brews turned out. Not that they tasted bad at all, just that it feels too watered down to me. So, here I am, calling on those more experienced than I, what can be done in future brews to help counter this 'problem'? I might assume using less water, but I have hope that there are other tricks someone has to improve this.

Just for Noting, the 2 Brews in Question:

Extract Kit - Porter - Measured about 5 1/4th Gallons - 2 weeks in Primary Glass Carboy - 2 weeks Bottled. Note: Added Vanilla beans during the 2nd week in Carboy, along with a bit of the Vanilla vodka I let them soak in.

Next:

Extract Kit - American Wheat - Measured just about 5 1/2 gallons - 2 weeks in Primary Glass Carboy - 2 weeks Bottled. Note: Added Raspberry Extract (4 oz.) when Racking to Bottles.

Hope this helps!

 

[Donasay]

recipes help, knowing they are kits doesn't tell us how much fermentable sugars and residual sugars are going to be in the wort. Did you steep grains? Was this liquid or dry extract? What brand of extract, what color etc.

I hate to even ask, but did you take hydrometer readings at all?

 

[Stark]

recipes help, knowing they are kits doesn't tell us how much fermentable sugars and residual sugars are going to be in the wort. Did you steep grains? Was this liquid or dry extract? What brand of extract, what color etc.

I'll grab my notes once I get home and update the original post. Now that you've mentioned it, it makes a lot of sense I should have placed that information in there.

I hate to even ask, but did you take hydrometer readings at all?

Sorry it was an unfortunate for you to ask, but No, I made a bad rookie mistake and did not take Gravity Readings. I have thus since brewing these 2 batches acquired a Hydrometer to gather these readings in future batches.

 

[Yooper]

Without seeing recipe and amounts, one thing jumps out at me right away. If you're making a 5 gallon kit, and you top off to 5.5 gallons in the primary, you're watering down the kit by 10%. Maybe the 5 gallon kit was meant to only be topped up to 5 gallons.

The other thing is ingredients- some kits just don't have the best ingredients for body and mouthfeel. Also, time helps. Carbonation and conditioning can really "fill out" the beer. Something kind of bland and watery at bottling can age a bit into a full beer, and the carbonation helps the mouthfeel quite a bit.

 

[Stark]

Without seeing recipe and amounts, one thing jumps out at me right away. If you're making a 5 gallon kit, and you top off to 5.5 gallons in the primary, you're watering down the kit by 10%. Maybe the 5 gallon kit was meant to only be topped up to 5 gallons.

Thanks for the response Yooper (Love the Red Green Avatar!). And I'm going to agree with you. I buy my kits currently from beer beer and more beer, and I dropped in their shop and talked to them and mentioned what I suspected as what you had mentioned as well and all of us seem to have the same feeling, I'm using too much water when I start out. I have another batch I am going to brew this weekend, will have to update once that is conditioned and see if that fixed things.

Thanks again for the Response! And remember, If the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy!